The answer? Not Really. Another potential cause is the so-called feminisation of education. Think back to your days in primary or elementary school. How many of your teachers were women? What about in pre-school? Was there a single male adult? The reasons for this are social demands. Parents worry about who is in contact with their young, and are naturally more trusting of women. In recent years, any man wishing to teach younger children is subjected to a far greater level of scrutiny, and there is a certain stigma present about any man wanting such a role at all. The result of this is that whereas girls grow up surrounded by women who have obviously succeeded at education and actively encourage it, many boys male role-models are likely to be in a less-academic field.

Women are also seen to be more actively encouraged in business than ever before. The business women Deborah Meaden and Barbara Corcoran are prime examples of this. While there naturally are male counterparts, these are nothing new to increase male achievement.

All these reason combine to suggest why girls are more motivated in education, but do not go very far to explaining why boys are not. Well, one such reason is male attitudes. Paul Willis studied the attitudes and behavior of 12 working class boys from the midlands through overt observation and interviews. While the group that he studied was small, and his methodology somewhat inhibited by demand characteristics and interviewer bias, he reached the conclusion that the 'laddish' behavior and attitudes of the boys prevented them from academic achievement.

These attitudes may have been propogated by parents that widely support their daughters more than their sons, and are often more likely to fund university for their daughters. Without such encouragement, some boys are destined to fail.

This lack of encouragement supposedly comes from the view that boys have manual trades to fall back on more than girls do, and even though with manufacturing at an all time low, this attitude still exists amongst young males today.

There is a multitude of reasons for this gap in educational achievement, from social policy and the feminisation of education, to social attitudes, and biological make-up itself. Addressing this gap would require not only a change in the way that education is structured, but also of the social demands of males. It can only only be speculated as to whether such changes would then cause girls to underachieve as opposed to boys.